You know, linux development is hard. Really hard. Not so much because of the software, but because of the users .

They're just getting warmed up. Wait till people running slightly unusual/older distros have problems. About 10-13% of calibre users are linux based, yet the number of complaints I get from linux users is a far higher percentage of the total.

Then periodically someone will write to me that they don't like Qt, could I please make a GTK based interface. Or that they don't like X, could I please rewrite everything to not depend on it. Or that a calibre package doesn't exist for their favorite obscure distro Y, could I please take the trouble to create one for it. Then there'll be complaints from smart asses convinced that they know more than you do and you could do no better than listen to them.

And since you've written Sigil in Qt you'll eventually start getting complaints from OS X people along the lines of, this doesn't look like other OS X apps, please rewrite the GUI specially for me.

In comparison I have to say that windows users are the most mature of the lot. The worst problems I get on windows are when some stupid AV program or the other prevents calibre from working on a users machine.

Certainly developing for linux users can be fun On the plus side, most serious code contributors to your project are likely to be running linux.

Linux users can think for themselves, Windows users will eat whatever you give them

[Taps microphone]
Hello? I'm Derek and I'm a Windows user.
[muted "Hellos" from the rest of the group]
I just wanted to say that it's been less than 60 seconds since the last time I used Windows. And I just found out that, as a Windows user, I cannot think for myself!
[Gasps from the group]
What I want to know is, is there an OS out there which EXACTLY duplicates the functionality, UI, ease-of-use and complete integration with the BillG/Micro$lut World Domination Plan made by a responsible OS developer? One that can run ALL my M$ apps without needing to recompile, restructure or *RELEARN* all the UIs?

[Taps microphone]
Hello? I'm Derek and I'm a Windows user.
[muted "Hellos" from the rest of the group]
I just wanted to say that it's been less than 60 seconds since the last time I used Windows. And I just found out that, as a Windows user, I cannot think for myself!
[Gasps from the group]
What I want to know is, is there an OS out there which EXACTLY duplicates the functionality, UI, ease-of-use and complete integration with the BillG/Micro$lut World Domination Plan made by a responsible OS developer? One that can run ALL my M$ apps without needing to recompile, restructure or *RELEARN* all the UIs?

Derek

With or without the various bugs, crashes, viruses, malware, et al?

(Sorry Valloric, for going off-topic. I just couldn't resist the quip...)

The easiest way, of course, is to tell ppl who have the overwhelming desire for GTK interfaces is to tell them to port it themselves, i.e. make their own GTKSigil project.
As for obscure distros I believe that managing the top 3 distros would do, and if they want support for their favourite rare distro, the answer again is to get them to port it themselves.
As for different processor executables, which is my big thing given I'm using AMD64, I'd be happy to compile for myself - but often the problem is guessing what depends are needed. I'm still to compile calibre and your calibre executable package, Kovid, is essentially i686 with every library needed compiled for i686 included and distributed via magical mystery script (bypassing the repositories). The Ubuntu repository people do succeed at porting calibre directly to AMD64 but they don't exactly keep up with the latest version of Calibre except during each Ubuntu release, which is usually months down the road and a long wait indeed. If a small feature is broken atm and assuming the repos version was broken too, it would be even more painful for a repository user.
They certainly whinge when it comes to OS X too (where style matters above substance!) except I no longer regularly use OS X and as such couldn't care less anymore. I encourage you to have the same attitude; you can't change the look of an application every five minutes! If they want it to look different, they can make their 'port' themselves IMHO.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

They're just getting warmed up. Wait till people running slightly unusual/older distros have problems. About 10-13% of calibre users are linux based, yet the number of complaints I get from linux users is a far higher percentage of the total.

Then periodically someone will write to me that they don't like Qt, could I please make a GTK based interface. Or that they don't like X, could I please rewrite everything to not depend on it. Or that a calibre package doesn't exist for their favorite obscure distro Y, could I please take the trouble to create one for it. Then there'll be complaints from smart asses convinced that they know more than you do and you could do no better than listen to them.

And since you've written Sigil in Qt you'll eventually start getting complaints from OS X people along the lines of, this doesn't look like other OS X apps, please rewrite the GUI specially for me.

In comparison I have to say that windows users are the most mature of the lot. The worst problems I get on windows are when some stupid AV program or the other prevents calibre from working on a users machine.

Certainly developing for linux users can be fun On the plus side, most serious code contributors to your project are likely to be running linux.

[Taps microphone]
Hello? I'm Derek and I'm a Windows user.
[muted "Hellos" from the rest of the group]
I just wanted to say that it's been less than 60 seconds since the last time I used Windows. And I just found out that, as a Windows user, I cannot think for myself!
[Gasps from the group]
What I want to know is, is there an OS out there which EXACTLY duplicates the functionality, UI, ease-of-use and complete integration with the BillG/Micro$lut World Domination Plan made by a responsible OS developer? One that can run ALL my M$ apps without needing to recompile, restructure or *RELEARN* all the UIs?